In a fit of nostalgia and under pressure from my 12 year old son to do so, I recently decided to reconvene with some of my old game buddies to start RPing again. In an effort to please both my young sons and my long time RPG group, I decided on DCCRPG as our system of choice. I spent the last few weeks reading up on the rules and binge listening to Spellburn, Sanctum Secorum, Iron Tavern, and RPPR Actual play DCC episodes. By the time we got around to playing our first funnel this afternoon we had worked our selves into a pretty good frenzy.

It appeared there was no better choice than Harley Stroh's "Sailors."

Our game group consisted of 3 experienced, but perhaps rusty, adult players, and two young adventurers with almost no RP experience. I have been out of the game for years and was actually nervous about judging the game (which was an absolutely foreign experience for me lol).

Most fumbles were on the part of the judge who, despite his best attempts to prepare, was out of practice and failed a few saves versus index.

Despite the fact that 2 of my players were my beloved kin, I was merciless in my judging and we played everything in the first module by the book except for languages which I allowed them to roll for as we adventured later (thanks Judge Jen).

Straight 3d6 was merciless and beautiful. Each player took 4 poor souls into the lair of the Chaos Lord.

Here thar be spoilers... (obviously. Has anyone here not played Sailors?)

We started with a fun premise that the peasants had been fantasizing about being adventurers for years and held weekly "planning session" with a local tavern denizen named "Blu" who acted as a sort of primitively "dungeon master" on their imaginary ale fuled adventures. These sessions had the players on the verge of being first level, but they still lacked real experience. On this particular night Blu convinced the group to roll out into the night to finally do something. As the peasants poured out of the tavern into the afternoon sun a couple of observant group members noticed Blu's wife showing up to drag him home by the ear, but the damage was done.

Lead by the fearless dwarven Stonebgard brothers, the group rolled straight up the path, pitchforks in hand, to the keep. This frontal assault led them straight into the confrontation with the vine horrors and then to the pesky portcullis. (They almost braced the trap before entering but for some reason decided it was safe). Their ranks were slightly thinned by these tests, but it was enough to bring the danger of their endeavor into focus. Rumors of a dangerous well and promises of wealth in the tower led them to delve straight into the beast master lair. The battle was unforgiving and by the time it was done one player had lost all 4 of his starting characters. We also lost one of the Stonebgard brothers and my youngest son's favorite character "Fark." My oldest had created two chart actors that were a young couple and of course, Blackthorn's girlfriend Grondkin was one of the first to fall into eternal slumber.

I allowed each player that had lost a man (or women) to recruit a rescued peasant at that time and the player that was out of the game was allowed to generate two.

The tomb was bypassed out of a combination of fear and low strength. Fingers were lost. The players did manage to get two skulls from the pool as well as a robe. The real heroics began when the players reached The Menhir.

The 12 year old's character Anorack, an eleven sage that seemed to be the only one interested in learning the ways of the chaos cult, climbed to the top while one of the adult players lit the candle. No one inspected the runes and markings, but Anorack decided to put on one the rotten robe he had taken and pose like the character in the murral. I ruled that this would activate the pang to sacrifice a teammate. My son, after failing his save, dutifully killed another player, cut out his heart and fed it to the leviathan while the rest of the group cowered in horror.

This combination got them across the sea in short order. Upon reaching the ziggurat they were faced with the problem of sneaking a large party up the path with only one robe. Again the plucky Anorack pulled through by pretending he was a chaos lord with a large group of slaves. I was iffy on allowing this until he rolled a natural 20 on my requested personality check. The beast men parted like the Red Sea allowing the players to reach the top before anyone realized what was happening. Then the battle was on.

the deaths were piling up but the chaos lord never got a shot off, as the players tossed their two skulls at him and burned through some serious luck to put him down quickly immediately after he burst from his rocky cocoon. True to form, the now Chaos obsessed Anorack went straight for the Chaos armor and was consumed by the final magma death throes of the Chaos Lord.

The players wisely chose to only spend one round collecting coins and then escaped to the safety of the ghost ship and the freedom of the open sea.

8 of the 25 peasants survived the onslaught to mature to level 1 and fight another day.

We were on a strict time table and had allotted 6 hours to roll characters and play. We just finished in time thanks to my players going straight for the jugular and avoiding a lot of the side content. We are looking forward to getting into the wonders of level 1 play soon.

Leaning toward Doom of the Savage King next and then my version of Wooden Shrine of the Blood Father for our continued adventures. Will also be running Perilous Pantry to restock our ranks when needed.

Thanks to Goodman Games, the Spellburn crew, and Mr. Stroh for helping us bring together two generations of nerds for an afternoon of awesome.

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 1 guest

You cannot post new topics in this forumYou cannot reply to topics in this forumYou cannot edit your posts in this forumYou cannot delete your posts in this forumYou cannot post attachments in this forum